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Sunday, July 19, 2015

Israeli soccer violence moves racism up the government’s agenda

A violent display of racism by extreme nationalist
supporters of storied Israeli football club Beitar Jerusalem coupled with recent
Ethiopian Israeli protests against discrimination and the government’s handling
of the capture of two Israelis by Hamas has moved racist attitudes towards
dark-skinned Jews and Israeli Palestinian up the government’s agenda.

Driving calls for the banning of La Familia, the racist
anti-Arab, anti-Muslim fan group of Beitar is concern about damage the group
did to Israel’s image abroad rather than a worrisome trend in society at a time
that Israel is anxious about the gathering momentum of calls to boycott,
disinvest from and sanction the Jewish state for its policy towards the West
Bank and Gaza.

Israeli foreign ministry officials charged that an incident
in Belgium in which Beitar fans waved flags of the outlawed racist Kach party
founded by assassinated Rabbi Meir Kahane and threw flares and smoke guns on to
the pitch as well as a missile that hit a goalkeeper during their club’s Europa
League qualifier against Charleloi SC had damaged Israel’s international image.
La Familia hung the Kach flags next to the Israeli flag in the stadium. The
Israeli fans were welcomed in the stadium by neo-Nazi supporters of Charleroi
with swastikas and Palestinian flags.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the incident,
saying that he had discussed possible legal action against La Familia, believed
to have several thousand followers, with internal security minister Gilad Erdan.
“We will not allow them to besmirch the club’s entire fan base or harm the
country’s image,” Netanyahu said.

In an editorial liberal newspaper Haaretz warned that “the
problem is not Israel’s image in the world, but the overt racism that is fuelled
by exactly those same officials who are now condemning it. Netanyahu and (culture
and sports minister Miri) Regev are preaching to others what they themselves do
not practice. With their racist remarks (‘The Arabs are flocking to the polling
stations’), their conduct (threatening the funding of Arab cultural
institutions) and their antidemocratic legislation – which is so typical of the
government they head – they legitimize the phenomenon called Beitar Jerusalem,”
Haaretz said. The paper was referring to Mr. Netanyahu’s fearmongering during
the May election in which he warned that strong Palestinian participation
threatened the outcome of the vote.

Founded by the revanchist wing of the Zionist movement with
strong links to the right-wing nationalist Jewish underground in pre-state
Palestine, Beitar has long been a darling of the Israeli right that counted
nationalist leaders, including Mr. Netanyahu, among its supporters.

The only club to have consistently refused to hire a
Palestinian in a country in which Palestinians ranks among its top players, Beitar
has maintained its racist stance despite repeatedly being penalized by the
Israel Football Association (IFA).

The economy ministry’s Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission, in a historic break with past IFA and government policy of only
mildly chastising Beitar, summoned the club days before the Belgium incident to
justify its racist hiring policies.

The move came weeks after the IFA had narrowly pre-empted
adoption of a resolution put forward by the Palestine Football Association
(PFA) to suspend Israel’s membership in world soccer body FIFA in part because
of its failure to crack down on racism in Israeli soccer. In a compromise, the
PFA withdrew its demand in favour of the establishment of a FIFA committee that
would monitor Israeli efforts to address Palestinian grievances.

“The more deeply one looks into the reasons and motives for
Beitar’s racist conduct, the more strongly the impression emerges that the
problem stems from the forgiving attitude of the authorities around it – from
the Israel Football Association to the league administration, all the way to
ministerial level. These bodies, using various and sundry pretexts, lend a hand
to the phenomenon and allow it to exist – whether by turning a blind eye to it
or giving convoluted and evasive explanations,” Haaretz said.

“The time has come to stop talking about image, ‘education’
or ‘processes,’ and start taking practical steps. Alongside harsh penalties for
manifestations of racism, Beitar Jerusalem must be given a limited window of
time during which it will be required to sign Arab players – even at the cost
of a major confrontation with its fans. Instead of condemnation, the time has
come to act,” the paper said.

The focus on Beitar’s racism further comes on the heels of protests
in recent months by Ethiopian Israelis who first demonstrated against the
beating up in April by police of an Israeli soldier of Ethiopian extraction and
the subsequent closing of an investigation into the incident.

Ethiopian activists have since agreed to a request by the family
of Avera Mengistu not to protest against the government’s handling of his
disappearance in Gaza some ten months ago. The government issued a gag order on
reporting of the incident that was lifted earlier this month under pressure
from the media and various politicians. As a result of the gag order, even
members of Mr. Netanyahu’s security cabinet and parliament’s foreign affairs
and security committee were kept in the dark

Similarly, Mr. Netanyahu did not visit the Ethiopian family
until earlier this month and only after his hostages and missing persons
coordinator, Col. (Res.) Lior Lotan, was forced to apologize for telling the
family that their son's release would be delayed if they criticized the prime
minister.

Col. Lotan also insisted that the family refrain from
connecting the government’s handling of their son’s case to the Ethiopian
protests against discrimination. “I’m going to tell you this in the toughest
way possible: Whoever puts on Avera the story of what’s between the Ethiopians
and the State of Israel will leave him in Gaza for another year,” Col. Lotan
was heard saying on tape.

Mr. Mengistu was detained after he climbed over a fence to
enter Gaza. Hamas said it had released him after questioning but was still
holding an Israeli Bedouin who legally crossed into Gaza in April. Mr. Mengistu
is still missing.

Israeli media charged that the government had kept Mr.
Mengistu’s disappearance secret because of his skin colour, noting that his
family speaks poor Hebrew, lives in poverty, and does not have the wherewithal to
stand up for their son’s rights.

Some analysts argue that the government’s handling of the
case of Mr. Mengistu and the Bedouin, whose name has not been released, are not
unique. Families of past Hamas prisoners and soldiers missing in action who are
not of Ethiopian or Arab descent said they too had been humiliated and forcibly
silenced by the government during their ordeal.

Nevertheless, the combustible mix of Israel’s image being on
the line as a result of the violence of Beitar fans as well as Palestinian
soccer efforts to force changes in Israeli policy, the protests against discrimination
against dark-skinned Israelis, and the disappearance of Israeli nationals in
Gaza puts Israeli racism in the spotlight. Israel cannot afford to be seen to
be ignoring a dark side of its society and culture.

James M.
Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
as Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, co-director of the Institute
of Fan Culture of the University of Würzburg and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer, and a forthcoming book with the
same title.

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About Me

James M DorseyWelcome to The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer by James M. Dorsey, a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Soccer in the Middle East and North Africa is played as much on as off the pitch. Stadiums are a symbol of the battle for political freedom; economic opportunity; ethnic, religious and national identity; and gender rights. Alongside the mosque, the stadium was until the Arab revolt erupted in late 2010 the only alternative public space for venting pent-up anger and frustration. It was the training ground in countries like Egypt and Tunisia where militant fans prepared for a day in which their organization and street battle experience would serve them in the showdown with autocratic rulers. Soccer has its own unique thrill – a high-stakes game of cat and mouse between militants and security forces and a struggle for a trophy grander than the FIFA World Cup: the future of a region. This blog explores the role of soccer at a time of transition from autocratic rule to a more open society. It also features James’s daily political comment on the region’s developments. Contact: incoherentblog@gmail.comView my complete profile